Day 8 (Dec 14) update

Killing Kyoto and other short plays
Negotiations were temporarily suspended for five hours at Copenhagen on Monday morning after the G77-China bloc, led by Africa, walked out amidst claims that the future of the Kyoto Protocol was being sidelined. Talks resumed after separate discussions on extending Kyoto were promised. Developing countries want Kyoto to be expanded and those not part of the protocol (namely the US) to make carbon commitments under a new, binding protocol. African delegates insist that rich, developed countries want to ‘kill Kyoto’ and bring in a completely new agreement, which developing countries fear will undo their gains under Kyoto. (bbc)

All in all, this is nothing new just countries reaffirming their stances in more dramatic, Spanish-drama, camera-zoom-ins, kinda-flourish. As they write at Grist: “That’s what this first week has been about: negotiators demanding as much and conceding as little as possible, posturing and bluffing, leaking discussion drafts, issuing ultimatums. Nobody concedes anything during the first week; everyone wants to be courted. It’s all positioning.”

We got nothing (for China)
Before the dramatic walkout, which undoubtedly kept the 5,000 reporters at Copenhagen happy/busy for a while, some progress was made on technology transfer to developing nations. China is still in the shooting line, with the US insisting that it wants it to make measurable, reportable and verifiable emission (MRV) cuts and that they are unwilling to spend any adaptation money on them. Even so, the two main issues up for debate -emission cuts and money for adaptation- are still undecided and so there is everything to play for this coming week.

Reasons (no really) to be cheerful
EurActiv.com reports that the business lobby has been unable to sway Copenhagen so far because of a lobby split between climate winners and losers. Whilst the environment and development groups (as well as the low-carbon sector) were out in force during the talks, businesses seemed to have missed a step mainly because of divisions on climate action which could disadvantage energy intensive sectors such as cement and power generation. “They’ll end up on the losing side of where we’re going,” said Bjorn Stigson, head of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, referring to business sceptics. Awww, now wouldn’t that be a shame..

Yes Men at it again?
Another spoof press release has been doing the rounds, this time from Canada announcing ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions by 40% by 2020. With the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada emitting huge amount of C02, Canada was ripe picking for the practical jokers, who also committed the countries to paying 1% of its GDP (rising to 5% by 2030) to finance adaptation in developing countries. “Contributing to the development of other nations and taking full responsibilities for our emissions is simple Canadian good sense,” explained the press release. Couldn’t agree more.

Protest News
Police have arrested 17 protesters on Monday when thousands took to the streets to highlight the plight of climate refugees near the Danish Defence Ministry. Over 1,200 protester have been apprehended over the weekend in connection with protests and several hundred complaints have been pledged against the police force… although the law students offering their services for free may have something to do with that. (earth times)

Quoteable Quotes
“At the end of the day, the overall negotiation [is] a tale of two numbers,” says Andrew Deutz, senior policy adviser for UN affairs at The Nature Conservancy, “What’s the financing package? And what are the emission-reduction numbers?”